The cohesin complex loads onto chromatin in telophase, but its association with chromatin remains transient, dynamic until the S-phase of the cell cycle, presumably because the cohesin-bound NIPBL:MAU2 (SCC2:SCC4) complex promotes chromatin loading, while cohesin-bound WAPAL promotes dissociation from chromatin. Stable binding of cohesin complexes to chromatin, measured by a mean residence time on chromatin, is triggered by DNA replication in S-phase (Gerlich et al. 2006), consistent with establishment of sister chromatid cohesion.